‘Akira’ Remake is Moving Forward Again

We're long past caring, but hey... Good for those guys.

We're just going to say it: we're worried about the live-action American Akira remake. It's got a good writer, sure, in the form of HarryPotter's Steve Kloves, but it still seems to be gravitating away from a tale of rebellious youths and into a tale of a SonsofAnarchy-lite biker gang that gets psychic powers. Also, the post-apocalyptic setting of the film loses context when you take it out of Japan, post-World War II. Also, well… this.

But Variety reports that Warner Bros. has officially green lit the sequel anyway, with director Jaume Collet-Serra (TheOrphan) directing. In other encouraging news, the budget has been slashed to $90 million, and Garrett Hedlund of that other sci-fi which didn't quite change anyone's lives is the frontrunner to star, presumably as the teenaged Shotaro Kaneda. At least he's younger than those 30-year-olds they were thinking about casting before…